Who is Veronique Rabiot, the woman at the heart of France's latest controversy?

While Karim Benzema appealed for calm from his France teammates on the pitch against Switzerland, the story in the stands was somewhat different, with Adrien Rabiot's mother arguing with several other families.

Veronique Rabiot criticised Paul Pogba for an error in the build-up to Switzerland's equaliser, and the Manchester United player's family took umbrage.

After arguing with the Pogba family, Rabiot didn't stop and Kylian Mbappe was the next object of her complaints.

"I hope you have a talk with your son," Veronique Rabiot told Wilfried Mbappe, Kylian's father, as per Le Parisien.

After this, Veronique argued with Pogba's family again, as well as with a TF1 journalist.

"You'll tell the truth now, too, won't you?" said Rabiot.

"Like you did in 2018 with my son."

These comments relate to the fact that prior to the 2018 World Cup, Adrien Rabiot was widely criticised in the media for refusing to form part of Didier Deschamps' reserve list for the tournament squad.

The incident left him in international exile until the head coach brought him in from the cold last year.

Past incidents

Veronique Rabiot's reputation for confrontational behaviour has some history, however, and this latest incident will not surprise those who know her.

In 2014, Paris Saint-Germain had to call security when she waited for Laurent Blanc in the parking lot to recriminate him for relegating her son to the reserve team.

Veronique, as her son's agent, threatened legal action against PSG over the issue and also later successfully contested the non-payment of a contractual bonus after he left for Juventus on a free transfer.

Other run-ins with the Parisian club's hierarchy included when she attended a training camp in Doha, despite family members being banned from the compound.

Her hard ball negotiating also scuppered the midfielder's hopes of a move to Barcelona, who found her financial demands too steep, and he eventually landed in Turin.

Indeed, Veronique Rabiot's track record of calling it as she sees it and standing by her convictions goes way back: when Adrien was 15 years old, she withdrew him from Manchester City's academy as she felt they didn't believe in him enough.

Now, for France, this is another subplot from a disappointing night. It is essential that the French national team finds a way to remain united in adversity, as the memory of the 2010 World Cup should remind them.